Nancy Morrison is dipping into her savings account to buy food and pay for basic household bills as negotiations to end the government shutdown remain at a standstill.

The communications, radar and automation technician at Louisville International Airport has worked three weeks without a paycheck, along with roughly 800,000 other federal workers who aren’t being paid.

Morrison, of Louisville, has tried repeatedly to contact a man who she believes could help re-open the government: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

But the U.S. Air Force veteran says it's nearly impossible to get through to anyone at his offices. She can't leave a message with anyone in his Washington, D.C. office, and his local office rings until the line hangs up.

"For me personally, it’s a joke that we can’t get a hold of him because he is our senator, and he’s holding the reins, too, of the Senate vote," Morrison said.

Morrison is asking a question echoed by many political leaders in Washington, and experts around the county as the shutdown hits day 27: Where's Mitch McConnell?

The question became a trending topic on Twitter thanks to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, who joined a handful of House Democrats scouring the halls of Congress with news cameras asking "Where's Mitch?" She and a group hand-delivered a letter to McConnell's office, demanding a vote to reopen the government.

"He’s not in the cloak room. He’s not in the Capitol. He’s not in the Russel building. He’s not on the floor of the Senate," Ocasio-Cortez said on social media. "And 800,000 people still don’t have their paychecks – so #WheresMitch?"

He’s not in the cloak roomHe’s not in the CapitolHe’s not in the Russel buildingHe’s not on the floor of the Senate

McConnell was praised by Republicans and Democrats during President Barack Obama’s tenure for cutting deals to escape gridlock. But observers have noted the Kentucky Republican, who once relished that deal-maker role, is keeping his head down during this partial – yet historically long – shutdown.

Here's how McConnell explained it to the Courier Journal: In those previous impasses or shutdowns, there was a Democratic White House that took the lead. Obama needed GOP votes that, McConnell said, as minority leader, he was able to deliver as a key negotiator.

McConnell: Democrats should deliver deal

The nearly monthlong shutdown was triggered by Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats prefer to invest more heavily in ports of entry. The Democratic-led House of Representatives passed a spending bill Jan. 3 that includes $8 million to hire 328 new Customs officers and $225 million to purchase equipment used to screen trucks and vehicles for contraband.

The way McConnell sees it, under President Donald Trump, Democrats Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, and Chuck Schumer, his Senate counterpart, should be the ones delivering a deal.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., listens to a question while speaking with the media after he and other Senate Republicans had a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, Tuesday, June 27, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)(Photo: Alex Brandon, AP)

"As long as Democrats refuse to come to the table for serious, good-faith negotiations with the White House, they will prolong this partial government shutdown," McConnell told the Courier Journal on Wednesday. "Speaker Pelosi continues to prioritize her opposition to President Trump over the security of our nation’'s borders and the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are missing paychecks."

Ben Self, chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, said no one accepts McConnell’s explanation about his absence from the shutdown talks, however.

“I think it’s obvious that Sen. McConnell is afraid of the president at this point,” he said.

The question is whether McConnell is taking a reasonable backseat to the president, or if it's his latest effort to avoid friction with the confrontational commander-in-chief, who remains popular in Kentucky.

Managing mulitple political priorities

Democrats want McConnell to let the Senate vote on their compromise proposal, which funds eight of the nine shuttered departments while temporarily funding Homeland security to continue the border security debate.

But he has rejected that offer because Trump doesn't support it.

"If Trump is not willing to sign off on a budget, then it’s not clear anything McConnell could work out would do much good,” said Stephen Voss, a University of Kentucky political science professor. “It would only be creating conflict within the Republican Party for nothing. … McConnell can’t look as though he is betraying Trump’s bargaining position."

Democrats say that is just the latest example of McConnell overlooking Trump’s worst tendencies in exchange for filling judicial vacancies with conservatives. The McConnell legacy hinges upon a rightward shift in the courts, which he has made clear is more paramount to him than any other policy achievement.

"It's the only thing we do where there are lifetime appointments," McConnell told the Courier Journal in October. "I love the tax bill and I like what we did on deregulation, but just as soon as the political winds shift you can bet we'll be back at the tax code depending on who is up and who is down at any given moment."

Interested in this topic? You may also want to view these photo galleries:

House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, who is Kentucky’s lone Democrat in Washington, praised McConnell after the mid-term elections for brokering previous deals to avoid a shutdown. He now believes his fellow Kentuckian is shifting that responsibility to other leaders at the expense of federal workers.

“Sen. McConnell is clearly concerned about his re-election, and the re-elections of other Republican senators on the ballot in 2020,” Yarmuth said.

McConnell was able to deliver a unanimous short-term spending bill to Trump’s desk without the roughly $5.3 billion for the border wall just before Christmas.

Under that proposal, the government would have been kept open until February. But the president changed his mind abruptly because of pressure from conservative activists and prominent media figures to deliver on his campaign promise.

Yarmuth said McConnell doesn’t want to take another risk given how unpredictable the president is known to be.

“We now have a president who has proven himself incapable of keeping his word,” he said. “Sen. McConnell is forced to decide between either looking foolish when the president once again publicly undermines him, or weak when he steps back from the important conversations that are happening. In this instance, Sen. McConnell has chosen the latter.”

Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, acknowledges the GOP leader is spinning multiple plates amid the shutdown.

“The leader understands that everybody has different political needs and demands in their states,” Cornyn told the Washington Examiner. “But I think (McConnell) believes that it’s important that we not split our conference by forcing a vote on something that the president will veto.”

'No compassion ... from Trump or McConnell'

In recent weeks, McConnell has echoed Trump’s warnings about the need for stronger border security, using his Senate floor speeches in the past week to take partisan punches at Democrats for being unwilling to negotiate.

“The men and women on the ground have been unambiguous about the crises they’re facing,” McConnell said Wednesday. “The entry of criminal aliens and gang members into our country. The drugs that go on to infect communities. The ongoing humanitarian crises that are fueled by our government’s mixed signals and our inability to enforce our own laws.”

McConnell sympathized with federal workers, saying how they will have to stretch every dollar until “Democrats lose interest in dead-end political games.”

Polling conducted this month shows Americans see this impasse as one between Trump and the Democrats, with little mud getting on Republicans like McConnell.

Fifty-four percent said Trump is most responsible for the shutdown versus 31 percent who blame congressional Democrats. The poll, conducted by the PBS NewsHour and Marist, found just 5 percent fault the GOP on Capitol Hill.

Morrison, the FAA worker, doesn’t care about the political math or maneuvering. She has little faith in this shutdown ending soon and she's already thinking about what sacrifices she and her co-workers will have to make next in the coming weeks.

McConnell needs to either convince Trump to sign the compromise legislation or allow a vote to force the president’s hand on what to do next, Morrison said. If Trump vetoes that bill then Congress should try to override that decision.

"We’re the ones working without pay and who have mortgages to pay. It’s just not right, and there’s no compassion coming from Trump or McConnell," Morrison said. "I will keep calling McConnell, because more and more of his senators are going to be hearing from us."

Reporter Billy Kobin contributed to this story. Reporter Phillip M. Bailey can be reached at 502-582-4475 or pbailey@courierjournal.com.